In this blog series we’ll be experimenting with the most interesting blends of data and tools. Whether it’s mixing traditional sources with modern data lakes, open-source devops on the cloud with protected internal legacy tools, SQL with noSQL, web-wisdom-of-the-crowd with in-house handwritten notes, or IoT sensor data with idle chatting, we’re curious to find out: will they blend? Want to find out what happens when IBM Watson meets Google News, Hadoop Hive meets Excel, R meets Python, or MS Word meets MongoDB?
Follow us here and send us your ideas for the next data blending challenge you’d like to see at willtheyblend@knime.com.
Today: BIRT meets Tableau and JavaScript. How was the Restaurant?
The Challenge
How would your favorite restaurant perform in a health inspection? Are you sure you are eating in one of the most reliable and safest restaurants in town? If you live in Austin, Texas, we can check.
Over the last three calendar years, data.austintexas.gov has published a dataset of restaurant inspection scores for Austin (TX) restaurants. Inspection scores range between 0 (theoretically) and 100. An inspection score lower than 70 requires corrective measures; repeated low scores may even necessitate the closure of the restaurant.
We will use this dataset to visually explore:
- How many restaurants have been inspected in each ZIP code area;
- Of those restaurants how many have scored between 70 and 80, 80 and 90, and 90 and 100, as well as perfect 100 scores;
- And finally, the average scores for ZIP code locations in the Austin area.
For each one of these goals we will use a:
- pie chart;
- grouped bar chart;
- geolocation map.
So far so good. Now we need to choose the graphical tool for such representations.
Since data manipulation within a reporting environment might be clunky, many KNIME users prefer to run the data manipulation comfortably from KNIME Analytics Platform, and later export the data to their preferred reporting tool.
There are many ways to produce graphics in a report with KNIME Analytics Platform. Today we will consider three: with native graphics in BIRT, with JavaScript based images exported to BIRT, with native graphics in Tableau.
BIRT (Business Intelligence Reporting Tool) is a reporting tool, which to a certain extent, is distributed as an open source tool. The KNIME Report Designer extension integrates BIRT within KNIME Analytics Platform. The “Open Report” button in the KNIME tool bar takes you to the BIRT report environment. The “KNIME” button in the BIRT report environment takes you back to the KNIME workbench.
Tableau Desktop is a reporting tool, which requires a commercial license. 14-day trial licenses are also available at the Tableau Desktop site. The KNIME Tableau extension allows you to communicate with Tableau Desktop via TDE files or directly with the Tableau Server.
It is also possible to produce the graphic image in the KNIME workflow via the JavaScript nodes and subsequently export the image to the reporting tool of your choice.
In today’s Will They Blend, we want to highlight the process of generating a few simple graphics using BIRT, JavaScript, and Tableau. Can we produce three simple charts using those tools? What might that involve? Let’s find out!
Topic. Data Visualization using BIRT, Tableau, and JavaScript
Challenge. Create a Pie Chart, a Bar Chart, and a geo-location map using BIRT, Tableau, and JavaScript
Access Mode. KNIME Tableau extension, Report Designer extension, JavaScript Views extension, Open Street Map Integration extension
